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Frequently Asked Questions

Installation and Compatibility

What operating systems are supported?
AutoRead for Outlook runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 with the latest Service Pack.

What versions of Outlook are supported?
AutoRead for Outlook works with Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007. It requires the latest office Service Pack.

Functionality

I have a rule that moves messages to another folder and marks them as read. Messages are moved correctly, but are not marked read. Why?
This is a limitation of Outlook. To work around it, you have to create two separate rules with the same criteria - one to mark a message read, the other to move it.

Outlook crashes when I edit a rule that uses a custom action. Why?
You must be using Outlook 2002. It has known problems with custom rule action support. Please install the latest Service Pack which fixes some of the issues.

My rule removes the "New Mail" icon. Great! But I still hear the "New Mail" sound.
To turn off sound notifications
In Outlook 2000 and 2002 - Tools -> Options -> "Preferences" tab -> "Email Options" button -> "Advanced Email Options" button -> "Play a sound" checkbox
In Outlook 98 - Tools -> Options -> "E-mail" tab -> "Play a sound" checkbox

To disable the "New Mail" sound only for the messages that trigger AutoRead, follow these steps:

1. Turn off sound notifications (see above).
2. Add "stop processing more rules" to all AutoRead rules.
3. Create a new rule that plays a sound for all messages and make it the last rule to be executed.

How do I integrate AutoRead with SpamBayes?
To clear the "New Mail" envelope icon from the taskbar whenever you receive a new message classified as spam by SpamBayes, follow these steps:

1. Select the SpamBayes "Junk Email" folder in Outlook.
2. Select "AutoRead: Folder Properties" from Outlook's Tools menu.
3. Check "Enable AutoRead on this folder" and "Remove the New Mail icon".
4. Click "OK".
5. If the "New Mail" envelope tray icon still shows up when you receive a spam message, there are some SpamBayes configuration options you might have to change - see below.

If you configure AutoRead Folder Properties on the SpamBayes Junk Email folder, but the New Mail icon is still showing up when you receive spam messages, try the following steps:

1. Bring up "SpamBayes Manager..."
2. Go to the "Advanced" tab
3. Set both "Processing start delay" and "Delay between processing items" to 0.
4. Hit "Close".

Make sure you are running the latest version of SpamBayes.

I am still having problems integrating AutoRead with SpamBayes.
If you followed the instructions above, but the "New Mail" icon is still showing up for some but not all spam messages, the following information from one of our customers might help you:

I have stumbled onto something interesting. You will get much better results (fewer of these failures) if you configure AutoRead on the Spam folder BEFORE you designate it as the junk mail location for SpamBayes.

Here is what happened: At the conclusion of the testing period, I was still getting about a 10% failure rate. That is, about 10% of the time that a spam message would come in, AutoRead would leave the icon on. Several weeks ago, I accidentally deleted my spam folder. I recreated it, configured AutoRead on the new folder, then updated my SpamBayes configuration to use the new folder as the spam destination. My error rate dropped essentially to zero -- I had only one error in the following three weeks, as opposed to 1-2 a day prior to that. As an experiment, I then tried the reverse: deleting the spam folder and recreating it, then configuring SpamBayes and then AutoRead. The error rate jumped back up to where it had been. After a couple of weeks, I went back to the "AutoRead first" configuration, and the errors have again disappeared. I have had none in over a week.

I created a rule with AutoRead custom action, but it doesn't work. Why?
There are several potential causes for the problem:

• Make sure you click the "Change..." button when creating rules.
• Make sure you don't have multiple instances of Outlook simultaneously accessing the same Exchange server mailbox. For example, one each on your home and office computers.
• Read these Microsoft Knowledge Base articles on Outlook rule troubleshooting:
  Outlook 98
  Outlook 2000
  Outlook 2002
  Outlook2000: Rules Based on Mail Sent to Yourself Do Not Fire Consistently
  Outlook2000: Rule Based on Sender Name May Not Work

My version of Outlook 97 does not have Rules Wizard. Why?
Rules Wizard is not bundled with Outlook 97. Microsoft provides it as a separate download.